Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1887-04-15
IIincoIn's fortunate ESCAPE.

nc duitibtS vi lDt 1tfGNf " 1lAS "a
Lincoln thus refer to Lincoln's escape
from becoming resident oflice-holder
under the Washington Government,
after his Congressional term had ex-
pired: at was in this way that Abra-
ham Lincoln met and escaped one of
the greatest dangers of his life. In
after days he recognized the error he
had committed. and congratulated HIM
self upon the happy deliverance he had
obtained through no merit of his own.
The loss of at least four years of the
active pursuit of his profession would
have been irrcparable, leaving out of
view the strong probability that the
singular charm of Washington life to
men who have a passion for politics
might have kept him there forever. 1t
has been said that residence in Wash
ington leaves no man precisely as it
found him. This is an axiom which
may be applied to most cities in a GER
tain sense, but it is true in peculiar
degree of our capital. To the men who
come there from small rural communi-
ties in the South and the West, the
hustle and stir, the intellectual move
ment, such as it is, the ordinary sub
iects of conversation, of such vastly
greater Importance than anything they
have previously known, the daily and
hourly combats on the floor of both
houses, the intrigue and the struggle
of oflice-hunting, which interest vast
numbers besides the office-seekers, the
superior piquancy and interest of the
scandal which is talked at Congress
sional clearinghouse over that which
seasons the dull days at village-tav-
ern,-all this gives a SAVIOR to life in
Washington, the memory of which
doubles the tedium of the sequestered
vale to which the beaten legislator re-
turns when his brief hour of glory is
over. 1t is this which brings to the
State Department, after every general
election, that crowd of specters, with
their bales of recommendation from
plying colleagues who have been re-
elected, whose diminishing prayers run
down the whole gamut of suppiication
from ST. James to st. Paul of Loando,
and of whom at the last it must be
said, as Mr.. Evarts once said after an
unusually heavy day, MANY called,
but few chosen" OF those who do not
achieve the ruinous success of going
abroad to consulateS that will not pay
their board, or missions where they
only avoid daily shame by hiding their
penury and their ignorance away from
observation, a great portion yield to
their fate and join that fleet of wrecks
which floats forever on the pavement
of Washington.
1T is needless to say that Mr.. Lin
coin received no damage from his term
of service in Washington. but we know
of nothing which shows so strongly the
pcrilous fascination of the place as the
fact that man of his extraordinary
moral and mental qualities could ever
have thought for moment of accept
inc position SO insignificant and in
congruous as that which he was more
than willing to assume when he left
Congress. He would have filled the
place with honor and credit-but at a
monstrous expense. We do not so
much refer to his exceptional career
and his great figure in history; these
momentous contingencies could not
have suggested themselves to him. But
the place he was reasonably sure of
filing in the battle of life should have
made a subordinate Office in Washing
ton thing out of the question. He
was already lawyer of skill and repu-
taton; an orator upon whom his party
relied to speak for them to the people.
| An innate love of combat was in his
| heart; he loved discussion like a medi-
nval schoolman. The air was already
tremulous with faint bugle-notes that
heralded conflict Of giants on field
| of moral significance to which he was
| fully alive and awake, where he was
certain to lead at least his hundreds
and his thousands. Yet if Justin But
terfield had not been more supple,
more adroit, and less scrupulous sutton
for office than himself, Abraham LiE
coin would have sat for four inestim-
able years at bureau-desk in the In
terror Department, aud whom tie hour
of action sounded in Illinois. who
would have filled the place which he
took as if he had been born for it?
Who could haze done the duty which
he bore as Ii ,-htly as if he had been
fashioned for it from the beginning Of
timer